Dunsfold Dave

That was me.........looking at the temperature gauge hoping the traffic would move!!!! DD L7YEL Ps I'm also in KITCAR mag this month in the article about trackdays.......I should get royaltees

I have always run with the stack giving me a fairly low oil pressure reading and last year I did have the main oil pump replaced. Could the overheating be just a result of overfilling with oil. Once you over heat presumably the viscosity of the oil reduces and the pressure drops i,e 105deg water temp 5psi oil pressure?? The race engines running at 75+/- 5deg seems quite cool to me, but I suppose they dont sit in traffic for the temp to rise. DD DD

Thanks for you help. I have over filled with oil out of an inane inability to read the stupid DS dipsick clearly, I just thought it found the correct level by dumping oil into the catch tank. Being thick I had no idea that overfilling with oil causes over heating. I'll take your advise Grant and change the sender and flush through. Do you know how to reset the stack dash?

Tom - The water temp is hot and as it rises the oil prerssure drops. I do have a dry sump. Myles - Thought I'd drive to work this morning in it. No problem but no real traffic to speak of. Through town my water temp was 87-90deg. What oil pressure when hot does your R500 run at idle. This morning mine was between 12 to 16psi whilst waiting at lights is this normal or rather low. If its overfilled should the pressure read high? DD

I've had the car almost two years and it has just started overheating, according to the stack dash. I've tested the system on my drive and it runs up to 86deg fan cuts in brings it down to approx 84 and then cuts out. Thats fine everything working, then why does it keep going to 100deg plus when I'm travelling slowly in traffic. The water pump is working there is plenty of water in the expansion tank etc. It never used to do this. Ive been advised that I should fit an ECU fan control and this would bring the fan in at approx 65deg. THis would mean it would probably take longer to reach overheating levels but would it solve the problem? Its a R400 and do they always suffer from this and should I just fit the Ecu control switch, Larger rad and a larger fan? Its just strange that I've never had the problem before I have also overfilled the car with oil but it does not seem to be filling my oil catch tank from the breather. Is there something that would cause this? When the car overheats say 105deg!!! the oil pressure drops at idle to 5 psi accordingly. None of the problems appear to affect the smooth running of the engine, no misfires or lumpy tickover or hunting etc. Is it possible that the stackdash needs re-setting in some way? I do not want to cause serious damage to the engine and I'm no mechanic but some advise from any of you in the know would be helpful. DD

See you there. Lime green L7 YEL cant miss it!!....OIl permitting Dave

I normally use caterhams own branded oil but is there an alternative that I could buy from Halfords. The car is mainly used on trackdays so good quality is essential. I need to do an oil change before Snetterton this sunday. Dave

Thanks for the suggestions etc I will investigate this week

I have an oil leak form the crankcase seal, which only appears at very high revs i.e track days. We changed the crankcase seal which appears to be where it is coming from but it still occurs. Has anyone else with an R400 experienced a similar problem? Last week minister said it would most likely be the seal but it must be something else. All you clever mechanical types any ideas?